TOOLBOX | PART IV | FACILITIATION METHODS - bdemirjian/apbr2 GitHub Wiki
Design Studio
The purpose of a design studio is to quickly iterate through design solutions. Use this technique when a team is first starting to design something and needs to try out a lot of ideas.
Steps
- Set the context and define the problem
- First round of sketching
- Review and critique
- Second round of sketching
- Review and critique
- Generate last sketch
How Might We's Method
The "How Might We" exercise is a brainstorming method that reframes problems as opportunities. By framing challenges as How Might We statements, you'll set yourself up for an innovative solution.
First, start with insights and themes from prior research or inspiration workshops. Now, try reframing your insight statements as How Might We questions to turn those challenges into opportunities for design. We use the How Might We format because it suggests that a solution is possible and because they offer you the chance to answer them in a variety of ways. A properly framed How Might We doesn’t suggest a particular solution, but gives you the perfect frame for innovative thinking.
STEPS
-
Start by looking at the insight statements that you’ve created. Try rephrasing them as questions by adding “How might we” at the beginning.
-
The goal is to find opportunities for design, so if your insights suggest several How Might We questions that’s great.
-
Now take a look at your How Might We question and ask yourself if it allows for a variety of solutions. If it doesn’t, broaden it. Your How Might We should generate a number of possible answers and will become a launchpad for your Brainstorms.
-
Finally, make sure that your How Might We’s aren’t too broad. It’s a tricky process but a good How Might We should give you both a narrow enough frame to let you know where to start your Brainstorm, but also enough breadth to give you room to explore wild ideas.
KJ Technique
Affinity Mapping - Diagramming The KJ Technique is a specific method for getting groups to agree on top priorities. It achieves this by having a group generate ideas specific to a question, group them, and then prioritize them. Use this technique when you need a group to arrive at consensus quickly.
Steps
- Determine a Focus Question
- Organize the Group
- Put Opinions (or Data) onto Sticky Notes
- Put Sticky Notes on the Wall
- Group Similar Items
- Naming Each Group
- Voting for the Most Important Groups
- Ranking the Most Important Groups
For full details on how to run a KJ session, see Jared Spools write up.
PADWAC
PADWAC to Keep Meetings Productive
We’ve all been in long, over-crowded meetings where it seems like nothing ever gets done and it’s just a waste of time. But meetings shouldn’t be wasting your time! They should be helping you do your job better. That’s why it’s so important that you have effective meetings where decisions are made, action items are assigned, and the next steps are clear. We realize that time spent in meetings is time that isn’t being spent getting work done; therefore, the meetings that we do have should be as efficient and effective as possible.
Consider using the PADWAC model to help keep things on track.
- P | The Pleasure-Displeasure Scale measures how pleasant or unpleasant one feels about something. For instance both anger and fear are unpleasant emotions, and both score on the displeasure side. However joy is a pleasant emotion.
- A | The Arousal-Nonarousal Scale measures how energized or soporific one feels. It is not the intensity of the emotion -- for grief and depression can be low arousal intense feelings. While both anger and rage are unpleasant emotions, rage has a higher intensity or a higher arousal state. However boredom, which is also an unpleasant state, has a low arousal value.
- D | The Dominance-Submissiveness Scale represents the controlling and dominant versus controlled or submissive one feels. For instance while both fear and anger are unpleasant emotions, anger is a dominant emotion, while fear is a submissive emotion.
- W | What | The first step to resolve conflict is to identify the root of your agitation. Focus on one incident that bothers you and start from there. Avoid using words like “always” or “never”, and simply describe your concern without blaming or criticizing the action of the opposing person.
- A | Ask | After you have clearly and logically raised the conflict, ask the person kindly of what you want them to do. Make sure you are clear with your request, if not, you are giving the other person to chime in and redirect the conversation to his/her favor.
- C | Check-in | The last part of this model is to check in on the other person’s reaction, and the conversation usually ends with a question like “do you agree” or “is that okay for you”. Each element would be a section of a whiteboard or a flipchart page.
- PAD emotional model model
- 8 additional models explained.
Parking Lot
Use the notion of a “parking lot” for setting aside suggestions that don’t fit in the current agenda and address them as “related topics” at the end of the meeting or in a future meeting.
Agenda
A list or outline of things to be considered or done
Decisions
Determine the forks in the road that need clear direction
(and/or)
Determining what was decided by those in attendance
Working Agreements
Ground rules for how the team agrees to work (e.g. Everyone participates, 5-minute break every 55 to 60 minutes, etc.) Actions Assign names to those who have clear follow-up items/come to conclusion on who has To-Do items as a result of meeting/discussion that was just completed Communication Plan Determine how the results of meeting/conversation will be shared with those who were not present during the meeting/conversation/gathering/etc.
Storymapping
The story map captures the journey a customer takes with the product including activities and tasks they undertake. Creating the story map as a team ensures team members are on the same page from the start of development through to ongoing delivery of new releases.
User story maps bring the customer story to life, helping you understand what they want. Ultimately, user story mapping allows the team to minimize waste and avoid building stuff users won’t value.
The "map" arranges user activities along the horizontal axis in rough order of priority (or "the order in which you would describe activities to explain the behavior of the system"). Down the vertical axis, it represents increasing sophistication of the implementation.
Given a story map so arranged, the first horizontal row represents a "walking skeleton", a barebones but usable version of the product. Working through successive rows fleshes out the product with additional functionality. image
Expected Benefits
One intent of this practice is to avoid a failure mode of incremental delivery, where a product could be released composed of features that in principle are of high business value but are unusable because they are functionally dependent on features which are of lower value and were therefore deferred to future releases.
At the conclusion of a user story mapping session the team will have:
- alignment on who their customers are;
- a backbone for the customers’ flow through the product;
- an ordered Story Map, ideally scheduled by version or sprint.
Process
Story mapping starts from an overarching vision. A vision is achieved via goals. Goals are reached by completing activities. And to complete an activity, users needs to perform tasks. And these tasks can be transformed into user stories for software development.
Story Map Structure: Goals > Activities > Tasks > Stories
In story mapping, defining a structure is important and then refine it as needed. The objective is to start with some structure in mind and evolve from it. Sometime it takes 2-3 iteration for a team to get the structure right.
